Local environmental group Wilderness Workshop hosted an event with the legal non-profit Earthjustice last week. The panel discussion was titled “Resistance: in the courts and on the ground.” Elizabeth Stewart-Severy was there and spoke with producer Christin Kay about the event.

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The advocacy event was meant to rally local people who care about the environment and to discuss what concerned citizens can do on a grassroots level.

Drew Caputo, an attorney with Earthjustice, discussed recent lawsuits that the firm has filed against the Trump administration.

“The value of litigation not only is to force everybody to follow the law,” Caputo told the audience of about 60, “But it’s to make people pay attention to what’s going on.”

Wilderness Workshop conservation director Will Roush spoke about how the environmental movement has evolved and professionalized. This has meant significant progress for the environmental lobby, but Roush said there’s a downside too.

“I think we’ve also lost something of power of citizens, of people who aren’t professional environmentalists taking action,” Roush said.

Wilderness Workshop is working to energize average people to take action.

Local non-profit Wilderness Workshop has a new tool for those who want to advocate for environmental conservation. The watchdog organization recently launched an email service called Capital Watch that suggests quick actions to protect public lands. Elizabeth Stewart-Severy sat down with executive director Sloan Shoemaker.

Pete Maysmith was last in Aspen during the ski industry gathering “The Meeting” in October. He is the executive director of Conservation Colorado, an organization that works to elect preservation-minded policymakers. Environment reporter Elizabeth Stewart-Severy talked with Maysmith about the group’s successes in this year’s election and some major challenges on the national level.

Early in this politically charged election season, Aspen elementary school teacher Julie Wille decided to step into the arena — to protect public lands. Wille and her two daughters, who are both in college, started a letter-writing, social media-driven movement called Women for Wild Lands.